Ares I-X

Possible shuttle replacement? I hope so!

Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-119)

Space Shuttle Discovery (STS 119) launched on March 15, 2009 at 7:43 pm. I drove out to Titusville, FL to watch the launch, and it is very nice to be able to hear the noise that the shuttle makes.





As it got darker, the contrail left by the shuttle started glowing with wonderful colors from the setting sun. Of course, these could have something to do with all of the nasty chemicals that the shuttle spews out in that smoke refracting the light, but it was still nice to look at. In contrast with Titusville's older buildings, this could have provided some great pictures, but I'm not entirely happy with how they came out.



Here's a video of the launch.

Kepler Telescope Launch on a Delta II Rocket

The Kepler Telescope launched on a Delta II rocket at 10:49 pm on March 7, 2009. Kepler sounds like a very interesting project, and lets hope it finds plenty of earth-like planets. You can read more about it on NASA's website.

I think I'll go turn on my SETI@home software now and leave you with these two fifteen second exposures of the launch:

Lake Monroe Sunset

I was in Sanford, FL a few nights ago and witnessed this great orange sky over Lake Monroe as the sun was setting...

Lenticular Clouds

Lenticular Clouds are a rare sight in Florida. They seem to only occur in cold weather, and Florida doesn't get cold that often. These strange looking clouds take the form of very smooth concave shapes. The best lenticular clouds are ones that are perfectly round and resembles an upside down bowl. I've only come across one of these perfect "UFO Clouds" on one occasion, but I've seen lenticular clouds like the ones on this page more frequently. These clouds don't have as much of a spherical shape and are more like several overlapping upside down bowls.

These lenticulars were seen over the cities of Casselberry and Longwood in January 2009.

Delta 4 Rocket Launch (January 17, 2009)

A Delta 4 Rocket launched on January 17, 2009 from Cape Canaveral. I tried taking some pictures/video of the launch, but didn't have much luck. Insead, check out this video of the launch from Spacevidcast on Youtube:

Wolf Moon

January's Wolf Moon, which occurred on the 1/10/09, was the biggest and the brightest of all of 2009.

Brightest Full Moon of the Year

This is the full moon as seen from Longwood, FL on December 11, 2008. Tonight's full moon was predicted to be the brightest full moon of 2008.

Venus & Jupiter

This is a picture of Venus and Jupiter at dusk in Deltona, FL on November 29, 2008. On December 1, the two planets will be joined by a crescent moon...

Space Shuttle Endeavour

On November 14, 2008, the Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-126) launched into orbit to meet up with the International Space Station. With the Shuttle being retired in 2010, the number of future shuttle launches is well into the single digits. In fact, tonight's launch was the last shuttle launch that is scheduled to occur after dark. It's kind of sad, since night launches are the best type to watch...

Starry Night

The stars over Longwood, FL...

Skydiving Shuttle...

A few days ago I posted a very unique perspective of a rocket launching (I said Space Shuttle at the time, but it may be a Delta Rocket instead) as seen from an airplane. Today I came across this video of a skydiver filming the STS-117 Atlantis launch. Not quite as high as the airplane was flying, but still very cool.

Space Shuttle Launch from Above...

I came across this very cool video of a Space Shuttle Launch filmed from an airplane. The cameraman is a bit overexcited though...

Cross Seminole Sunset

This great sunset was along the Cross Seminole Trail between Winter Springs High School and Central Winds Park...

Green-Glowing Sky

After an afternoon rainstorm in Florida, on rare occasions the sky turns a greenish-yellow color and everything has a very strange glow for a while, normally until the sun sets. These pictures are from one of these occasions...





Oak trees against the strange colored sky...




These is one of the last grapefruits of the season, almost the same color as the sky...

Sunset over Lake Jessup

These photos were taken on March 29, 2008 from Central Winds Park in Winter Springs, Florida at dusk. There was a very nice sunset over Lake Jessup...

Over a football field in Central Winds Park...

Space Shuttle Camera

Cool first person perspective video of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS 123) launching last week...

Lunar Eclipse: February 20, 2008

On February 20, 2008, in Florida as well as many other parts of the world there was a total lunar eclipse. The eclipse started at 8:43 pm and was initially covered by clouds where I was watching. By the time the moon was totally covered by the shadow of the earth at 10:01 pm, the sky was clear providing an excellent view. The moon turned a nice red color in the shadow, and soon enough the earth's shadow began to recede. A little after midnight, the full moon was free from shadow and back to it's normal self!

Here are some pictures I took of the eclipse:

I took some video of the eclipse by leaving my video camera on a tripod with it's full exposure open and auto-focus turned off. I took two segments of footage, one between 9:45 and 10:15 when the moon was approaching it's full eclipse and another segment between 11:45 and 12:15 as the moon returned to normal.

It's amazing how fast the earth and the moon move in relation to one another when you are trying to track the moon with a stationary object. Every time you see the moon drift off of the picture in the videos is not due to the camera moving. The videos were sped up to 3 times their original speed.

Feb 20, 2008- 9:45pm-10:15pm


Feb 20, 2008- 11:45pm-12:15pm


The next one comes in 2010!